What are we here for?

It was Gardeners Question Time and the first question was asked.

“Some years ago I planted some best quality vine trees in my garden as I wanted to produce some grapes. I dug the ground and added fertiliser but look at the pathetic grapes they have produced.”

The questioner was clearly disappointed and wanted to know what more he could have done.

The prophet Isaiah, writing around 750BC, used a similar parable. The vine represented God’s chosen people but they were not producing the fruit that God wanted. They were meant to be ‘the garden of his delight’ (Isaiah 5:7) Could this be said of churches in Britain; are we producing the fruit that God wants? Isaiah explained that the time will come when God’s people would no longer be the Israelites but would come from all nations,

“Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth – everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory whom I formed and made.” Isaiah 43:6-7

Isaiah goes on to explain what this means,

“ ‘You are my witnesses,’ says the LORD.” Isaiah 43:10

Witnesses to what? Isaiah continues,

“I, even I am the LORD, and apart from me there is no saviour. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed – I, and not some foreign god among you. ‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he.’”

The purpose of God’s people has always been the same. We are to produce fruit, lives that give glory to God. We are to his witnesses, explaining to people that the God who created this universe wants to save a people for himself. He wants his people to live completely new lives when they are ‘born again’.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past. See, I am doing a new thing.” Isaiah 43:18-19

People around us must know that we are God’s people and that we, as his people, belong to his kingdom. People will only learn this from what we say, backed up by the way we live. People do detest hypocrites and won’t listen to what we say. The central truth, the gospel, is that God wants all people to understand that he is willing to accept them as members of his family, if the will turn from their selfish lives and live as his Son, Jesus, demands of us.